A big personal anniversary is coming up for me next month and I'm doing the research to see if I can find some old pictures from 20 years ago. Digging through tons of boxes looking for old pictures scattered throughout my house has got me thinking:
- The pictures I took back then were taken with a Kodak disc camera. Seriously. Boy, that's scary.
- Digital cameras are wonderful as storing the images and archiving them is a snap!
- Finding things from 20 years ago can be a lot of fun.
While looking for photos, I found the following:
The above picture is a piece that I made for myself back in the early '90s. On the left is a picture of me before I was two and on the right I'm 19 years of age and am in Paris. What's up with the crappy artwork under "Who" and "Do"? I was told a long time ago that "who" we are remains constant in that there is a core aspect to who we are as individuals but what we "Do" (the right column) is like a slinky that can collapse and change shape over time. In the center, is Whitman's "Song of Myself" poem.
Back when I was in my early '20s I wanted a reminder that who I am is good and solid and yet what I do will change over time. Now that I'm fast forwarded into the future I'm reflecting back to my early years, remembering who I was back then.
The question is: Am I the same person?
Yes and no. That's the funny thing about life. There are some core parts of me that have remained the same. Much of my value system has remained the same, my beliefs in family, God, people and the goodness of life have all remained firm. Yet my understanding and outlook on life and as to what is important has changed as I've gained a bit more perspective on life and living. I know a lot more than I did then: I specifically know that I don't know much!
When I look back at what I did back then, comparing it to what I do now the themes remain pretty much the same. I wrote fiction and tried to get my stories/novel published. In 2010, I've published my first novel "Dorothea's Song" and am working on another novel. I enjoyed computers and still enjoy them. Yet there was no internet back then and today I'm podcasting, blogging, creating videos for YouTube and using social media. The core values of what I believe have remained the same yet the tools that I use to accomplish my goals have changed.
Back in 1990 I had a goal to communicate my stories to people throughout the world in the hope that I could help share my life experiences with others. What people chose to do with what they learned from my stories would be up to them, but I had always wanted to carve out a small, intimate niche of work that when someone reads one of my pieces that person could easily imagine that a conversation between us is taking place.
I'm continuing to do my research and to work on a special blog post for sometime in July 2010, but I had to stop to just share this story as I hadn't see the pictures above in many years. I've not forgotten to sing of one's self. And hopefully you won't forget either. Thanks for stopping by.
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